40 years ago: Students in crowded KC area attend school in shifts

Some Kansas City area schools were suffering from overcrowding. Ruskin High School, in the suburban Hickman Mills, Mo., District, had come up with an inventive, if not popular, solution. Juniors and seniors were in class from 6 a.m. until 12:15 p.m., and sophomores took over the building from 12:30 until 6:45 p.m.

Sixty-four members of the Lawrence High A Cappella Choir had just departed at 6 a.m. for their two-day Goodwill Tour through Missouri and Kansas high schools. The choir, directed by Lewis Tilford, was planning to perform in Fort Scott, then in Joplin and Neosho, Mo., and finally in Coffeyville and Chanute, Kan.

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali were both guaranteed $2.5 million apiece for the heavyweight championship fight to be waged in New York City on this night. The scheduled 15-round bout in Madison Square Garden was also expected to bring a windfall to cab drivers, bartenders, restaurant owners, and others. An assistant hotel manager was quoted as saying, "We don't even have a closet available." "The nice thing about fight fans is that they're big spenders, probably bigger spenders than any other sports crowd," added an assistant manager at the Statler-Hilton.